Pixar: So, princess stories. Disney has done that a lot. But…. maybe we can improve on some stuff.
Pixar: You know how mothers just seem to be…. well, missing from those stories? Missing or just quiet or a non-presence in the shadow of The Father or evil in-laws?
Pixar: Yeah. Let’s give our girl a mother.
Pixar: Hell, let’s make the whole story about their relationship, without minimizing the father-figure and making sure to give all of them unique and rich characterization.
Pixar: Oh, and our girl can shoot. Like a BOSS.
Pixar:
Pixar: Let’s make a point of celebrating her physical strength without making it the only thing that defines her!
Pixar: ….. in fact, hey. Wow.
Pixar: Let’s make her defining character moment center around compassion and *rhetoric*, where her intelligence and maturity and love of family are as important as her physical heroism.
Pixar: Oh.
Pixar: And while we’re on a roll?
Pixar: Let’s make sure that our female protagonists have complete agency, that none of their major defining moments or decisions revolve around or are accomplished only through the actions of men, that they are graceful and kind while being equally capable of crassness and unkindness, that romance is not our heroine’s goal and that no part of her motivation hinges on pleasing or impressing or playing the catalyst for a male character–
Pixar: –and that we accomplish all of that without belittling the importance of the male characters or their relationships as a realistic interconnected family!
Pixar: And while we’re at it?
Pixar: Let’s take that conservative “mama bear” trope and redefine it in the most simultaneously heart-rending and humorous way possible, leaving more metaphorical parallels for the audience to chew on than they’ll even realize until later.
Pixar:
Pixar: And I guess we can make it heart-breakingly lovely to look at while we’re at it.
Pixar: And with Celtic aesthetics. That mythological trove is way underused these days.
Pixar: …. and we have thoughts for a short, too…..

Don’t underestimate how much antagonism there is toward women and how many people wish we could turn the clock back. One of the things people always say to you if you get upset is, don’t take it personally, but listen hard to what’s going on and, please, I beg you, take it personally. Understand: every attack on Hillary Clinton for not knowing her place is an attack on you. Underneath almost all those attacks are the words: get back, get back to where you once belonged. When Elizabeth Dole pretends that she isn’t serious about her career, that is an attack on you. The acquittal of O.J. Simpson is an attack on you. Any move to limit abortion rights is an attack on you — whether or not you believe in abortion. The fact that Clarence Thomas is sitting on the Supreme Court today is an attack on you.

Above all, be the heroine of your life, not the victim. Because you don’t have the alibi my class had — this is one of the great achievements and mixed blessings you inherit: unlike us, you can’t say nobody told you there were other options. Your education is a dress rehearsal for a life that is yours to lead. Twenty-five years from now, you won’t have as easy a time making excuses as my class did. You won’t be able to blame the deans, or the culture, or anyone else: you will have no one to blame but yourselves.

I remember being sort of taken aback by her speech when I heard it on graduation day, because it wasn’t full of feel-good “you can do it” stuff. I was 21 at the time and hadn’t lived in the real world yet — not really. Now, at 37, I know exactly what she means. I’m sorry to hear today that she has died.

I saw this yesterday, liked it, and had to go back because I kept thinking about it.

‘Be the heroine of your life’ resonated with me extremely. The world always pushes at you, tries to push you to the background or at least to the damsel-in-distress role, which requires a starring saviour: the world does the same thing with you as it does to the heroines of books, movies, TV shows, trying to make the story all about anyone else, as if you don’t deserve to be central.

I feel like of Colfer weren’t famous he’d be cosplaying at all the cons but usually something obscure/made up/crossed over/ confusing – “I’m Ianto Jones who works for S.H.I.E.L.D. And is a half-cat mutant who travels back to the Victorian era on weekends.”

Chris Colfer is wearing an LA derby dolls t-shirt. Okay, okay. What do I do with this information? HOW DOES MY BRAIN PROCESS THIS?

Accidentally started doing Camp NaNoWriMo (yes, that can happen by accident).

It feels like I should be worried that I’ve written over 18,000 words that are pretty much all porn, torture, guitars and/or snark (this is not what I usually write, FYI. Well, except for the snark. I am all-snark-all-the-time. My writing is a snark machine.)

Going to blame my pain meds and just go with it, because I’m having too much fun to try and make this story into anything even remotely sane.